Great
4.0

Funny and bizarre, HB2 brings to life an extreme dreamworld that could only emerge from the unique imagination of Guillermo del Toro. This is a freak show of epic proportions. Think bar scene in the original Star Wars extended to an entire movie and you’ll begin to get the picture.

The movie goes out of its way to make Hellboy lovable, opening with him as a sweet-natured adolescent and dwelling on his love of cats and those close to him. This mostly succeeds, and gives the movie more charm than the usual comik story.

Male Stars
Great
4.0

Female Stars
Good
3.0

Female Costars
Good
3.0

Male Costars
Great
4.0

Great
4.0

Del Toro wrote the story and screenplay, as well as directed. So though based on the Hellboy comik book, this is largely GDT’s show. And what a show it is. Even more than most comik movies, the movie presents not just an alternate universe, but alternate mythologies to populate them, an achievement that begins to rival what Tolkien did in Lord of the Rings. (Thus it is only fitting that GDT is now making not just one, but two movies of The Hobbit.)

Sex
Innocent
1.0

Violence
Fierce
2.5

Rudeness
Salty
1.6

Fantasy
5.0

I was troubled by several goofy contrivances within the movie’s fantasy world. For instance, when our heroes get attacked by a swarm of small but vicious “Tooth Fairies,” they shoot them one-by-one, which is somewhat akin to fending off a swarm of bees with a 357 Magnum. You’d be covered with dozens by the time you blast one. Further, the Tooth Fairies clearly have the ability to swarm everyone and everything, yet leave our heroes alone for extended periods of the battle. In short, I found myself unwilling to suspend disbelief at key junctures.